Don't give up if your Goal (New Year's Resolution) Is to Get Organized! By Kathi Burns If your goal this year is to finally get organized, I have some possible unexpected news. Being organized is not just about containing your stuff, it is more often about managing your time more effectively. Think about it, if you had more time, you would be able to do more organizing and clutter busting around the house and the office, right? Time is the one thing that we all have the same amount of. It is also our most valuable asset. No matter what we do, time keeps ticking away and moving on at a steady rate. So how do we get more time? By being organized! If this sounds like a circular pattern, it is! If you had more time, you would be more organized and if you were truly organized, you would have more time. So what comes first? Determine what are your most important day-to-day activities and what you do daily that is a waste of time and energy. Think of things as basic as the daily ritual of food. Do you love to cook? Do you love to eat out? Do you simply want to eat healthy and don't care about much more than that? If you derive joy and relaxation from cooking, this is probably something that you want to allocate time for in your schedule. It will provide a way to relax and get balanced in between all the other busy parts of the day. If you can't do it every day, at least schedule it in 3-4 times per week. If you hate to cook and would just as soon eat out, you will save time but possibly gain weight by doing so. If you are most concerned about eating healthy, you could buy pre-packaged diet food, or join a club that provides all meals in fancy little containers. This would save time and speed you on the way towards your weight loss goal at the same time! So you see, when it gets down to the basics, effective time management takes into consideration what you find valuable in your life and eliminates the time you spend on things that are not your priorities. Once you have determined your priorities based around the major undertakings in life, food, social, physical and spiritual, it will be easier to make day to day decisions about where to allocate your time. You will gain clarity and insight on what you need to do to accomplish your goals and what goals are the most important. So- if this really is your year to get organized, you will find the time in your schedule to reflect and set goals. You will carve out chunks of time for projects that, in the end, will make you feel good and the master of your time and your life. Also see: • Equip Your Hall Closet for Toy Storage • Setting Up Your Home Office Kathi Burns is a syndicated columnist and founder of AddSpace to Your Life!, a Professional Organizing and Image Consulting Agency. Adding space is Kathi's mission and transformation is her passion. Learn more at Kathi's website www.addspacetoyourlife.com.